Road Take A Heavy Human Toll

Press Release Summary = National Highways and Expressways total about 65000 kms,which is 1.94% of the total mileage of roads, but they carry 45% of the total roadtraffic of India.

Press Release Body = New Delhi, 23rd February 2007 :India has one of the largest road networks in theworld, aggregating to about 3.32 million kilometers. Of this, national and Statehighways account for 1, 95,000 kms. National Highways and Expressways total about65000 kms, which is 1.94% of the total mileage of roads, but they carry 45% of thetotal road traffic of India.

Vehicles are growing at the rate of about 11% per annum and set to increase further,with many international car manufacturers setting up plants in various parts of thecountry. The percentage of freight traffic has also increased to 61%.

High-speed vehicles on highways increase accidents. According to a UN report notless than 90, 000 people are killed in road accidents in India every year. This is acolossal waste of human resource and the financial loss to the country is estimatedto be Rs. 12,000 crores annually. There is no professional road safety agency andnot more than a handful of professionals are available in the country givingpiecemeal advice now and then. The new models that are turned out and unloaded onthe highways spur demand for faster highways and the national highways networkingplans is a consequent creation. But faster highways do not necessarily mean safesthighways.

Every accident involving influential persons immediately sparks a debate on the sometechnical aspects or about the speed of the vehicles but one important aspect doesnot get the focus that is badly needed. Take one of the common causes of accidentsin the country. Speeding vehicles hitting the curbstones on the edges of dividers inthe middle of the road, resulting in the vehicles toppling over with fatalcasualties. A newspaper article quotes an American road design manual to say thatcurbstones on dividers should not be used. To quote\" \"In general, barrier curbs arenot desirable for use on freeways and other high speed roadways. An out-of-controlvehicle may overturn or become airborne as a result of impacting the curb.\"

If this proposition is correct these accidents could have been avoided, or at leastthe loss to human lives or vehicles minimized if there had been no curbstones. It ispointed out that this is not a new discovery and that highway engineers around theworld have been observing this code for decades. However, in India, most of thenational highways have this killer stones in the middle.

If one were to look closely at the highways, even as a layman, one of the strikingfeatures is the poor quality of material used, resulting in depressions, potholesand what have you apart from unevenness. Storm water drains adjacent or in themiddle, high embankments without wide \"grey areas\" or protective rails as one wouldfind on many mountains are contributing factors. It is also not uncommon to see onehalf the roads on a higher elevation then the other without protective guards.

Add to this the variety of traffic on the highways. The proximity of village'sresults in the highways being used by bullock carts, stray cattle and other forms ofanimals, apart from pedestrians trying to dart across, dodging the heavy traffic,resulting in the driver applying brakes at high speed with disastrous consequences.So long as human habitation is close to such highways (sometimes vehicles have topass through small hamlets and towns that dot the highways) they will remain aperennial, and additional, source of accidents.

There is a strong case for the country giving urgent attention to road designs andsafety principles, two key elements to make high traffic less accident-prone. Theeffort the world over is to design roads in such a way to make it user-friendly,taking into account all the possible mechanical and physical problems the driver islikely to face while driving at high speed on a long journey. The theme ought to bethat even if a driver makes a mistake the damage is minimal, not punish him withdeath, as is the case now. This means that the road design should be such as todiscourage use of the roads by elements not intended to use them and also providefor a cushion in case the driver makes a mistake or is suddenly confronted with aflat tyre.

Road users, especially in India, are confronted by situations impossible toanticipate, and hence it is all the more important that the design of the roadsshould take this into account. How? One of the ways would be to create a buffer zoneon either side of the road, so that when such a situation arises, the driver couldmove the vehicle towards the side which is either covered by bushes or a gentledepression which would act as a cushion and a natural brake.

Road casualties may not be totally eliminated but efforts should be made, as hasbeen done on a continuous basis around the world, to introduce new ways and designsto minimize the number of accidents and the resultant loss to human and materiallives. Unfortunately, in India, instead of going down, road accidents are steadilyrising.

To apportion the blame entirely on the design of roads would not, of course, becorrect. The kind of road sense that is displayed in India is generally abysmal.Pedestrians shunning subways and preferring to streak across in the midst of heavytraffic is a common enough sight. The omnipresence of stray cattle along thehighways is another major nuisance. But while one cannot impart walking lessons tothe cattle, except to caution their owners not to let them stray on the roads, thedrivers of vehicles could be dealt with more sternly when they do not observe therules. Drunken driving on the highways should be totally banned and a strict watchkept on such drivers something that is absent now. Drunkenness is one of the majorcauses of accidents.

Another reason is over-speeding by heavy vehicles like trucks and set for overtakingignoring all road rules. Blinding lights and taking short cuts and heavily leadedvehicles racing on the tracks ought to be checked with a heavy hand. Similarly,carrying hazardous material or protruding steel rods, spikes etc should beprohibited unless they follow well-laid standards and practices.

The establishment of highway patrols would thus become necessary. Unfortunately,there are very few of them in existence and even they are on a limited scale;further them not performing their tasks with the desired efficiency and speed.Helpliness along the roads is badly needed.

Overall, there is an urgent requirement for setting up a body to set safetystandards and safer designs of roads. These apart, non-observance of highway rules(in fact many drivers are totally ignorant about them looking at the kind of drivingone witnesses on these roads), specially drunken driving should invite heavy penaltyand even cancellation of license. These and related steps have to be taken by theState and Central Governments if they are really serious about making highwaydriving a pleasure rather then a pain, as it is now.